


Something Good

by ClockworkArceus



Series: What Happened Afterwards [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 10:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18519991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkArceus/pseuds/ClockworkArceus
Summary: After Archie realises his plan to restore balance to the world has done exactly the opposite, and that the world is about to go back to its alpha state - no humans, no Pokemon, nobody - he decides to do one last good thing.If he can't stop this now, maybe he can save whatever grunts aren't able to leave?...Unfortunately, he doesn't know the full story.





	Something Good

Archie was already contemplating if it’d be better if he’d done...nothing.

The rainstorm, pelting sideways, beat on the island of Hoenn still - by the third hour, Archie had guessed it wasn’t going to get any worse than this. After all, he already knew it wasn’t going to end on its own. The clouds had been falling to the ground since this morning - children across the island whispered about how the sky would fall next.

The streets of Lilycove City were empty; they ran like rivers, carrying torn leaves, shopping carts, silt…  
Archie blinked again, unable to see any more than a few metres in front of him - other than the lights of the houses, the landscape was grey, dotted here and there with the dim lights of houses, with faint silhouettes of people. Moving slowly, very slowly across them.  
That was the thing with a shadow - you couldn’t tell if it was facing you.

Half-running, half-skating, knowing the streets by instinct, Archie found the sandy beach on one step, then leapt into the water the next - diving, stumbling, getting far beneath his surface and letting his breath leak out of him - his chest hurt from all the air he’d taken in. His eyes burned, too. Normally he would be able to see where he was swimming, but the ocean was getting closer to the colour of the sand it took - and every rock below looked like someone. Some thing. 

How would someone be able to ride a Pokemon away, away anywhere else in this weather? - The waves here were fine, fine considering what was happening, but the waves further out to sea - it was best to assume the worst.

If you looked hard enough and for long enough, you could see a faint, cyan glimmer in the water - shifting, probably not even there, pulsating with the rhythm of the waves. It looked like the Blue Orb, it looked like the sun, it looked like a shoal of fish that didn’t know what shape to take.

But whatever it was, it wasn’t natural, yet at the same time it was meant to be here, and every time Archie blinked out the saltwater in his eyes - 

It seemed to grow.

The lightning in the sky above showed him the ocean floor, and what wasn’t there anymore. It showed him broken plastic and sunken branches, and it showed him a little nook dug into the rock and coral.

Quite a while ago, he’d made his own entrance to the base, probably too deep for anyone else to reach.

In case he needed to practice swimming, he told Matt.  
In case he needed to get in undetected, he told Shelly.  
In case, was the reason he gave himself, and he was satisfied with it.

In case...the main entrance was flooded.

The little hatch creaked open; rusty and stiff, but still functional. 

Archie was still contemplating turning back and doing nothing, but as the dripping of rain on water turned into the sound of an overhead light short circuiting, he realised there was still something he could do for those people.

Something good.

With a kick of his legs and grab of a nearby ladder, he was on the surface - the drumming of the rain cut out when his head popped up, leaving him in silence other than the gentle treading of water. The little nook shone warm, and bright, apart from the leaking roof.

“Hellooooo?” he called, just as a test.

He got out and walked away, even before he got a response, clearing his throat and wondering if the door to the base was even open - no, someone had left it open. Probably him.

Never mind, he kept going, trailing water on the floor. The air-conditioned chill was starting to set in, and Archie shivered just a little while he continued up to his office -  
Probably for the last time, actually. Weird.

That evening, he’d waltzed into some undersea cave, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and...well, the most prominent thing he remembered was that Shelly was mad at him. And then the Blue Orb that she tried to make a grab for. Emphasis on the tried.

And then, the way he explained what he was going to do - 

Then, the image of the great blue whale leaping out of the water, the rain that fell from the ceiling of the cave, the fear on Maxie’s face and the pure resignation on Shelly’s, the thunder, the lightning, the great black raincloud falling down from wherever up there was and swirling around everyone there in ways no cloud should…

He assumed, the grunts started panicking then.

All that was left for him to do now was to get the last few ones, probably frozen with fear or thinking they had no homes to go back to, to leave. He would do it with words alone and encouragement that no, the churning waters outside would be safe to walk through, that yes, homeless shelters in Hoenn can take in criminals…

And then he might leave. Possibly for good.

After Archie pressed the button to call the one working elevator, he leant back against the wall and tried to zone out, intentionally this time. Ding, the elevator was there for him; predictably he was the only one inside - he took out his phone, started fiddling with it a little…

And found a few missed texts from Shelly.  
“call me”  
“hey can you wait at the entrance”

With the way this elevator kept jumping and creaking, it looked like there was a slim chance it’d break, he mused. Fall into whatever water had been collecting down there.

“Where are you”  
“Archie where are you”  
“ARCHIE PICK UP YOUR PHONE”

Say...what if it did? Would anyone come to look for him? 

Archie tapped one button and started a call with Shelly, and slowly, he slumped down against the wall. He waited for the tone, to let him know that he’d gone through to voicemail, he tried to listen hard - how do you even listen hard?  
Strangely, the rain got even louder when he tried.

“Hey,” he said, after he’d heard the tone...whatever amount of times, enough amount of times, “I’m just calling to let you know I’m going to get any remaining grunts out of the base, so you don’t need to do that yourself, ‘kay?” 

The phone, on speaker, was far away from his face, his hand slack and limp.

“I know, I know it must be really hard to get a call - sorry, message - from me,” he continued, muffled by his other hand covering his face, “I know you...probably really, reeeeally hate me right now, but...take my advice and go. You don’t need...to - to do anything for Team Aqua anymore, alright? And I mean that.”

The elevator ground to a halt - Archie jammed his finger on the ‘close doors’ button.

“And I - I also just wanted to say that I, uh...get it now. What you were saying about me in the cave,” he continued, “I get that, I think I’ve gotten stupid and selfish and...just overall, I know you don’t think I can come back from this. I don’t know if I can come back from this. If this is my last - my last call to you and you never wanna talk again, I’m fine with it. It’s what I get... Just a minute -”

He placed the phone by his side, walked out through the opening doors and followed the signs to the meeting hall. 

He wasn’t done.

And as he took three deep breaths like Matt recommended, he swore he heard something. It sounded like phone static spiking, it sounded like breathing, but whatever it was...it had been there for a while. It was that mechanical voice, yes, the mechanical voice that reminded you your left message was going to start costing you money. 

So, then, why did it sound like -

“Archie?” said Shelly on the other end of the phone, “What’s going on?...”

“I don’t think anyone told them to evacuate,” she continued, matter-of-factly as Archie was during the first part of that message, “So -”

“Wait, wait - they, uh - “ he stammered, trying to forget there was a part two to it - “Didn’t all of the grunts leave on their own? They must’ve gone when they heard about the...the thing…”

“You can never tell with them,” Shelly laughed hollowly, “I think I saw one or two leave with me; that was pretty early, though…”

“Either way, it’s probably not a problem,” Archie told her, “You get back to...whatever you were doing.”

“Right. I’ll call back,” she said flatly, and hung up before Archie could say she shouldn’t.

Archie shoved the phone back in his pocket, and ran. 

No-one told them to evacuate. Of course, but they had the open work hours. Grunts left and stayed whenever they liked - but -

But - that was exactly why they stayed so long.

He wanted to do something good, but maybe, the thought, he’d ended up finding a way to do nothing and call that being hands-off, but as he rounded the corner and looked out over not a flooded meeting hall, but a sea of people that all looked up to him…

He remembered why they stayed.

The grunts of Team Aqua, lounging in the meeting hall, weren’t hiding from the water that had flowed into the base. The doors were always open, after all, and they let in both man and sea. No, no, they didn’t hide - they just stayed away from the stairs that the water was slowly making its way up, casually moving back every couple of minutes. The leaks in the ceiling matched up with patterned Pokemon umbrellas and buckets below. 

The smell of cupcakes drifted lightly up from below, and everyone talked.

“So the rainstorm’s actually happening?”  
“Do we just have to wait?”  
“Guys - guys - “  
“Oh, yeah! He’ll be fine.”  
“I can’t wait to get back to mum and dad and tell them it worked!”  
“Good weather for Duckletts.”  
“Not just Duckletts!”

Archie thought he’d see a scene like this in the emergency shelters dotted across the country, not here, but the difference was that everyone was happy - perhaps truly happy, for their Mudkips that played in the waterfalls that fell from stairwells, for their Carvanha that drank from the leaking pipes. Still, they ignored the rolling thunder outside, even cheering sometimes when they heard a lightning strike big enough.

“A toast to the Pokemon!” cried one grunt.  
“Screw Devon!” cried another.  
“Man, my dad is not gonna be happy…”  
“The fisher guy?”

A window upstairs burst open, sending down a waterfall of silt and seawater.

“Well, look at us! We’re the new generation!”  
“Look! Look over there!”

The broken glass started herding people away, as still more smashed under the pressure - the roar of the ocean screamed at everyone, and people remembered salt water made all the cuts and scrapes they’d got hurt all the more -

Archie finally found the microphone. Each switch seemed to miss his hand as he tried to turn it on - feedback blasted out the speakers.

“What are even toasting to?”  
“Guys, let’s - “  
“Let’s wait a minute!” said one grunt, standing on top of a desk - “We can’t just leave!”

“NO!” Archie screamed, forgetting about the microphone -  
Every grunt turned to face him.  
“You need to leave!” he continued, hoarsely, wildly gesturing toward the door, any door, “You should’ve gone already!” he snapped, making every young grunt jump in surprise, “Everyone - just - find anything you can and get OUT!”

Complete silence.

“But...we could just stay here, though,” said a grunt.

He pointed to the little whiteboard in the corner of the meeting hall - ‘Today’s the Day! Let’s Go Save the Pokemon!” was written on it, in bright pink pen. Little messages of support were scribbled around it - most of them for friends. Friends they knew were brave enough to do something good. Still, though, there was the piece of paper stuck to the board - it’d been there since day one. Something about where food and water was kept and what to do in case of an earthquake.

“I mean - we’re safe in our offices, we’ve got supplies! It’s not like this storm’s supposed to kill any of us, just…” he continued, before trailing off into nothing.

“And - And also, teams stick together!” cheered a young girl.

Archie took a long pause. A pause for effect like he usually did. His grip tightened on the tight metal railing as he tried to remember everything he’d told them all about The Plan, the actual, uncensored, actually worrying version of the Plan -

But there was nothing he could say for himself.

“The…”

“The orb worked, right?”

**Author's Note:**

> So!...Another story I really enjoyed writing, probably because there was more dialogue in this one. This was...kind of meant to be a shorter warmup, but it turned into this.
> 
> Was the ending okay? I kind of knew that the whole 'hey everyone was actually waiting for him all along' premise could...kind of turn out underwhelming or even a little heartwarming if not done right, so...let me know.
> 
> Even if it's not about that, I'd love to hear your feedback on this story!


End file.
